Describe your new book.
Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata is the third mystery in the Gilda Joyce series. Gilda and Wendy travel to Oxford, England, where Wendy is competing in an international piano competition. While helping Wendy battle stage fright and a bizarre haunting, Gilda finds herself attracted to a charismatic English boy. The novel explores the realistic theme of performance anxiety and the ways students, parents, and teachers can support and undermine each other. The Ghost Sonata is also a novel of the supernatural — a classic ghost story.

To write this novel, I drew upon my own memories of living in Oxford, England, where I lived and worked for several years. The Gothic atmosphere of the colleges of Oxford University and the importance music to the city of Oxford feature in the book. The Ghost Sonata was also partly inspired by my childhood experience of studying classical piano and competing in numerous competitions.

I'm currently at work on a fourth novel in the Gilda Joyce series that finds Gilda embroiled in a mystery in Washington, DC.

What fictional character would you like to be your friend, and why?
Well, if I could be thirteen or fourteen again, I would honestly have to pick Gilda Joyce for her heart, her loyalty to her best friends, the fact that she's totally herself, and the way she always makes something interesting or funny happen. (Come to think of it, these qualities sound like the same things I want in a friend as an adult.) On the other hand, because I have three young children, I wouldn't mind having Mary Poppins as a friend these days. What she lacks as a conversationalist, she would make up for with her magic ability to snap her fingers and clean a room.

Describe your most memorable teacher.
Wendy Choy's piano teacher in Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata was partly inspired by a piano teacher with whom I studied for several years. She was a fierce, independent woman who pushed her students to the limit. She seemed to be about six feet tall; she chain-smoked throughout my lessons, and she always wore short skirts and very colorful stockings. She always scared me a bit, but she also motivated me to commit myself to an art form. She helped teach me discipline and how to stay tough under pressure.

What is your favorite breakfast cereal?
This is an important question, as the key to understanding most writers lies in understanding their taste in breakfast cereal. Officially, I prefer oatmeal — nature's perfect, healthy food. Unofficially, I like whatever my three-year-old sneaks into the cart when we're at the grocery store. He tends to pick boxes that feature characters like SpongeBob or Shrek.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
As a child, I first wanted to be a writer simply because I loved books so much. As the years passed, I also found myself wanting to be a visual artist, and actress and singer, a pianist, a marine biologist, a doctor, and a lawyer. Writing allows me to explore all my interests — to imagine the inner worlds of people whose lives are very different from my own.

Why do you write books for kids?
I write books for kids because I love children's literature. Like many writers, I also have very vivid memories of what it felt like to be a child and a teenager. The audience for "kids' books" is the best audience in the world: readers who find a true connection with the books they love — readers for whom stories and characters are real.

Share an interesting experience you've had with one of your readers.
A fan of the Gilda Joyce books who is also a talented young writer wrote me a letter that made her a finalist in a writing contest sponsored by the Maryland Humanities Council. The Letters About Literature contest invites students to write letters to authors who have inspired them. In her letter, this reader said she was motivated by the way the act of writing sparked an adventure for Gilda Joyce in Gilda Joyce: Psychic Investigator. (On a whim, Gilda writes a letter to a distant relative, and she ends up traveling across the country to investigate a haunted house.) This reader's letter inspired me to visit her school and conduct a creative writing workshop. It was wonderful having an opportunity to read her writing and that of her classmates. Her letter also sparked an invitation for me to speak at the awards ceremony. Sometimes the act of writing really does bring people together and make things happen.

If you could pick anyone to illustrate one of your books, who would it be and why?
I would pick Greg Swearingen — a talented artist who does the cover art for the Gilda Joyce series. His illustrations are imaginative, atmospheric, eerie, and beautiful. He also has a wonderful ability to incorporate quirky details and little clues from the stories into cover art; an example is the number 9 that appears on the cover of Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata.